Brothers
by Kyrian
Summary: A fight between Eliwood and Hector, an unlikely meeting and friendship, and the promise to become hobos if it didn't work. Oh, what fun. HectorEliwood, slight LuciusRaven


Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem; I haven't even beaten the game. If I did, I would replace the character portraits they use in the game with animated scenes so I could make everyone snog! Now wouldn't it be cool to have slash, right there on your Gameboy screen to show to your homophobic seat partner on the plane?

Btw, the almost-nonexistent Lucius/Raven is dedicated to R Amythest, 'cause she rawks my sawks

X> X>

"Eliwood! ELIWOOD! Damn you, stop!" Hector yelled frantically. With a small sigh, he began to sprint towards the reckless red-haired man. It seemed he couldn't get there fast enough as he watched the enemy soldier swing his blade towards Eliwood; but his feet moved faster than his head, and he blocked the blade just in time as the man flinched. With a single swing he dispatched the sword wielder and grimaced as a spray of blood covered his axe.

"What the hell were you thinking? If I hadn't blocked that, you would have been killed, you MORON!" he yelled. Eliwood blushed and looked down, lowering his sword.

"Well, I guess I heard Mark wrong, heh" he stammered.

"You idiot, get back over there before you bleed all over me and find Serra." Hector grumbled. Eliwood nodded and took off back towards the cleric, right arm clutching a heavily bleeding shoulder wound.

Hector watched him for a moment, smiling slightly. 'And they call me reckless,' he thought, absent-mindedly wiping his axe off on the already bloodstained grass. Mark signaled something to him, and he was forced to take off again, axe over shoulder.

When he first started these battles, thoughts of glory and fame abounded in his mind. It didn't take him long to realize that on the battlefield he was just another soldier; it took even less time to change his mind about spilling another's blood, though now he was used to it. Even though, he still couldn't get over the look they got when it finally sank in that, yes, they were going to die. He might never get over it.

But Eliwood. . . he was always hoping that maybe he wouldn't need to kill someone else, that he could spare at least one life. That same naivety made him sure he couldn't die.

"Is it over?" Lyn called from across the field. The axe wielder looked around, then nodded before collapsing on the ground, sweat nearly drowning him.

"Hector? You okay?" Mark called.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just beat." he exclaimed, falling backwards and staring at the sky.

He had always been like that- always hoping for the best. Not to say he wasn't 'streetwise' as Matthew called it, it was just that Eliwood thought he could do twice as much as his real limitations. It got a little annoying sometimes, having to watch him 24/7, but it did give him a /reason/ to watch him.

Sigh- Damn the country. Damn the throne. He didn't want the power, the glory, or anything being marquess could offer. He got all that when his best friend smiled at him. No, all he wanted was Eliwood, the red-haired beauty that was always trying to help everyone.

He grinned as he stared at the heavens and wondered how many things that he liked about the other man.

"I don't understand how you can do that." a voice said from behind him. "You just lay back and stare up, like you don't realize that you're in the middle of a bloody battlefield with a body lying five feet away from you." Lyn chided, shoving him in the side gently with her foot.

He stretched before grabbing his Wolf Beil, and stood up.

"Well, are we leaving?" he asked. She nodded and ran off to check on Florina, who had come very close to being hit by an arrow.

Hector grinned again on sight of Eliwood, then began walking through the massacre.

X X

'Ah, the life of a soldier.' The blue-haired man thought as he crawled through the opening of their cramped tent. He sat down on his bedroll and began stripping off his soaked armor and clothes, saving only his pants for modesty.

"Hector, I'm coming in. Are you decent?" Eliwood called from outside the tent. He didn't wait for the answer, however, and crawled in the same matter. Without a look at the other, he too began pulling off dirtied layers and piling them outside the tent. Years of training had toned and muscled his body, but it was still cat-like as it had been in his youth. Unfortunately, like all those sappy novels proclaim, Hector actually couldn't take his eyes off Eliwood. Bit annoying, it was.

"Hector, are you okay? Hector?" the spell was broken (thank God), but now Eliwood was staring at him strangely.

'Eh, join the crowd.'

"Is something wrong? You were just king of staring off" he said worriedly.

"Oh no, just thinking" Hector smiled lazily and waved him off.

Eliwood did sit down, but he didn't look convinced. Oh, if only you knew… but I can't tell you…

"Can I ask you a question?" the man's tone startled him so much he jumped slightly, though it wasn't noticed.

"Why do you wear so much armor? You certainly don't need it."

The axe wielder looked over at the pile of metal carelessly dumped in a corner. Why did he?

"I… I don't know. I just always have." He replied, brushing a strand of hair back.

"Is there something you're not telling me? You know I'll listen."

"Well..."

"Girl trouble? Is that it?"

"No…I…I can't tell you," Hector fiddled with a loose thread on his bedroll, trying to look nonchalant. Eliwood looked stricken.

"Why not? You can tell me everything. Did you have another fight with someone?"

"Look, I just can't tell you, okay? I have my reasons."

Eliwood fell silent for a moment, searching the tent.

"…Does it have something to do with me? Did I offend you somehow?"

"Just drop it."

"But…."

Even though Eliwood's prodding was just concern for his best friend, it was starting to "hector" him (AN: there was a word I was trying to think of to use here, so I used the dictionary, and it came up with this as synonym. Puts a whole new spin on Hector for me, hehe).

"Why do you want to know? So you can gossip with Serra? It's really not any of your business, Eliwood."

Now, not only did the man look stricken, he looked heart-broken.

"Well, I'm worried about you, Hector. I've always thought of us as…brothers…after all."

Brothers? Was that all?

Hector stood up, looking at Eliwood with unrealized coldness.

"I'm gonna go get something to eat."

He was gone before the other could say a word.

X>X>

Food was not the easiest way to heal a broken heart, Hector soon found out. Serra's badgering and Sain's insistence that he had been dumped didn't help at all(though it was true).

Having endured the torturous meal, he decided that maybe he should just walk away forever and maybe become a hermit or something. Then he could go live in a log and fish in some nasty swamp and be gloomy all the time(notice the influence of the song Marie Laveau by Bobby Bare. I listened to that song endlessly growing up). But then he decided that was impractical and decided just to spend a couple of hours alone.

There was no actual trail through the woods where they were camped, so he just slipped through a pair of trees and began walking. After a while, every chunk of wood started to look the same, but he kept on; walking in the woods took concentration, and he couldn't think about anything else without falling flat on his face.

Finally, he stumbled into a clear spot—and the most beautiful view he had ever seen. Only the moon hung heavily in the sky, along with a spattering of stars, and both added to the night's radiance. He walked to the edge and looked over, spotting a blonde-haired monk on a lower ledge nearby. He turned, not wanting to interrupt Lucius, but he too stood and turned.

"Hello. Taking a walk?" he asked, looking at the man with a kind smile. Hector stopped and studied the monk.

"Yeah, I was just walking off dinner. This spot is nice." He replied, looking around a bit more. Lucius sat and motioned for Hector to do the same, not flinching as Hector's descent brought him inches from his back.

"I found it while looking for a spot to pray. I'm sure it wouldn't be quite so entrancing if it were raining though." Hector laughed, leaning back on his elbows for support.

"I'm sure you're right, my friend. Do nightly prayers take long?" he questioned. He had never been what you would call religious, and it amazed him someone could be so dedicated to an entity that no one was even sure existed.

"Oh no. We have a wondrous god(1) though; she doesn't ask for much, but gives freely to all." Lucius's eyes were positively shining now, as if the god were an old and long-unseen friend.

"What do you mean? What has she given you so deserving of praise, if you don't mind me asking?"

Lucius(2) looked down at his sleeve, a small smile gracing his face.

"…She's the one who led me to Lord Raven. Not to mention all of you. And she gives me the power to help others, if only in a small way." Well, he never thought of it that way. He had always thought of God as a showy, miracle-granting person. But the little things were her work too, he guessed.

Lucius was such a faithful person. He could go as far as to say wise, even...

"Lucius? Can I tell you something? As in a secret?" Oh, now he had done it.

"Yes, of course. What is it?" the monk was staring at him with friendly concern, the kind you'd expect from a woman. But then, Lucius was probably more womanly than any female he'd ever met. Not in a _bad_ way, of course.

"Well, I think I'm in…love. With a man." he stuttered. If only everyone were here to see him now! Hector was as red-faced as his cape, he was sure. But Lucius didn't laugh, or look at him in disgust, or in fact, look at him at all. He simply turned his gaze upwards and swept his hair off his shoulders.

"It's hard, isn't it? Being in love, I mean. All you really want to do is go up to that person and hold them close for a moment, but you don't, because you feel you'd stop living if they didn't feel the same way. Love is the strongest bond in the land, and the most torturous as well. But the thing you'll regret most is never trying to tell them before they're gone (3)." His words were poetry, poetry to the heart. And the strangest thing was that it was all true as well.

"You love Raven, don't you?" Hector asked softly.

"N-no, of course no-" he stopped, a small chuckle escaping his lips. "I guess it's rather obvious, isn't it?" the man stretched his legs out and leaned back as well, resting his head on the dew-soaked grass.

"I think you should tell Eliwood as well, Hector. Otherwise we'll never know." Hector grinned, falling to the ground with a thud and stretching his arms behind him.

"Transparent as glass, aren't we? Well, I figured if I got rejected, I'd run off in favor of becoming a hermit, but I really don't want to go alone, so how 'bout this. I'll tell Raven you're madly in love with him, and you tell Eliwood of my feelings, then we'll meet back here. So if we get rejected, we'll run off and withdraw from the world together." He proposed, climbing to his feet and helping Lucius to his. The aforementioned agreed with a laugh then began their walk back to camp.

X> X>

"Raven? Hello?" he called through the cloth door of the tent.

"What?" came the flat, uninterested reply.

Hector found the brunet behind the tree, a whetstone in one hand and his sword in the other.

"What do you want?" he growled, not bothering to disguise his loathing of the noble as he rose.

"Calm down, I just want to tell you tell you something. I was talking to Lucius, and we agreed that if he would tell my feelings to someone, I'd express his. So, he wanted me to tell you," Hector took a breath; this was almost as hard as coming out with his own feelings-

"He loves you. With all his heart and soul." Raven's face went blank, his sword slipping from his grip and making contact with the floor quite loudly.

"What?" was all he managed out.

After a moment, the mercenary regained his composure and looked Hector in the eye.

"Where is he?" Raven demanded.

Hector shrugged. "He can't talk to you until after he talks to me again. It's in the rules. So, do you want me to tell him you absolutely hate him now, or are you going to tell me?" he countered, smirking as Raven glared at him, and took a (apparently, menacing) step forward.

"It's none of your business, my _lord._"

Hector was unimpressed by his show. "It's Lucius's wish you tell me your feelings for him, for better or worse. We agreed it be done this way." Hector glared back, and surprisingly, the other backed away.

"If he wants it that way…I love him. Now go tell him that before I decide I want to do it myself." Ooh, was that a threat? Now he was terrified.

Hector looked at the brunet's back a moment, imagining the two together, and snickered at the mental image before turning to leave. Never thought that Raven would turn out to be a poof.

X> X>

Lucius wasn't back when he returned, and wasn't for the fifteen minutes afterwards. Hector was beginning to panic; he could tell that if he had been rejected, Lucius wouldn't want to return to tell him.

A soft crunching, made by light feet on dead leaves, proved him wrong as said person emerged from the trees, picking a few leaves from his hair. He said nothing as he sat down, instead casting his eyes toward the ground.

"…So, do you want me to go first?" Hector asked, looking over at the monk.

"I'm happy for you. He said yes." He continued quickly, so his voice wouldn't waver and the other couldn't say anything first.

Lucius was silent, but his eyes told his story. No doubt he wanted to find Raven now.

The axe wielder was about to go mad with worry; he wanted to know what Eliwood had said, but he was more than sure what the answer was, and it wouldn't be the one he wanted.

"So, you'll want to know what Eliwood said. The reason I was gone so long was I told Eliwood, and he…panicked. It took a while to calm him down."

Panicked? Oh, that didn't sound good. He hadn't thought the noble would be against the possibility of two men together, and it made him a bit upset. Then it suddenly occurred to him that he shouldn't be quite this clear-thinking when he had just been rejected and should rightly be in a depression.

"Hector, he told me he loved you back!" Lucius exclaimed.

"That's right," a quiet voice muttered from behind them. Both Raven and Eliwood stood there, Raven as grim-looking as always, and Eliwood positively radiating happiness.

"Do you really? This isn't some sort of sick joke, is it?" Hector asked dazedly. Eliwood shook his head, and stepped forward, but Hector got there first.

In one swift motion, he pulled Eliwood towards him and kissed him fiercely, arms around the redhead's waist.

There was no simple, one-second wonder-kiss for Hector; he dominated the kiss the entire time, though Eliwood put up a good fight before submitting. Before he could collapse, Eliwood slung his arms around the other's neck for support.

Their lips parted for a moment while each caught his breath, but they met again quickly afterward, and Hector's tongue took the opportunity to slip into Eliwood's mouth, relishing the taste. He couldn't quite tell what it tasted of, but after that moment it seemed as vital as air to him.

Though it didn't seem long, the sun was setting lower and lower in the sky, and both Lucius and Raven had left in search of privacy. Before long, the two were reluctantly forced to stop in hopes of getting back to camp before the sky was completely black.

"Do you think anyone will mind?" Eliwood asked, glancing at his friend and now lover. From their spot in the woods, they could see the campfire, a spot of orange amidst the dark greens and blacks.

"Oh, I'm sure they won't. You'd be surprised how many little dark places I've stumbled on in the last few weeks." Hector commented, gazing down the cliff with slightly mournful eyes. He may never see the place he and Eliwood had gotten together in ever again.

The sword wielder stopped to consider this seemingly innocent remark, not at all surprised.

"I don't think we'll have to resort to blackmail. At least, I hope not." He replied, jogging to catch up with the longer-legged older man.

"I bet you'd like to know who I caught Lyn with the other day."

"What? Who?"

"Not telling. But if you'll look hard, you'll realize how obvious it is. So, do you still think of us as 'brothers'?"

"Well, maybe. Incestuous ones."

Their laughter rang through the whole of the land that day, and for many after that.

X> X>

Sooo... That's over. Anyway, notes:

(1) I've often seen people refer to St. Elimine as their God, but she wasn't. He was a light Magic-user; they never actually say who the main god is. Rather annoying, really -.-;;

(2) Every time I tried to type Lucius, I typed 'Luscious'. I'm serious. Though I suppose Raven could use that to describe him.

(3) Beware the cheesy quote XP

I looked through that again and revised it. I didn't realize there were so many errors -.-;; Oh, and thanks for reminding me their god was a girl, Koriku. I had forgotten about that.

I know because you can't look forward to a new chapter, nobody really wants to review a one-shot, buuuut… if I tell you I might have another slashy-filled Fire Emblem one-shot in the works, will you maybe?

Come on. Press the pretty button; it wants to be friends with you and laugh at how bad this piece of crap is with you!

I comaaaaaaaaaaand yoooooooouuuuuuu...


End file.
